The Care + Feeding of Your Creative Mind.
Each one of us walks our own creative path. One artists journey isn’t any better or worse than another artist. What we do have in common is we all need to stay inspired, because if we don’t, we risk losing our creativity.
Part of the care and feeding of your creative mind should be finding your own sources of inspiration to turn into creative energy.
Make sure you spend time really looking at your inspiration. Think about how it makes you feel. What are the feelings, moods, emotions that happen for you?
Recently my coach shared with me “The Seven Channels of Experience” by David Mars, PhD. Of course, we all experience things differently. That’s not groundbreaking.
But it was new to me to think about the seven ways to experience something—visual, auditory, emotional, movement, energetic, imaginal, sensation.
My husband is incredibly auditory, while I’m more visual. But it’s more than that. I’m not good at finding the words for how I feel, but I know the shift of energy in my body. There is a sensation of excitement, a movement of energy. When this happens, I know to stop and pay attention.
Out in the world I look for inspiration everywhere, in nature, in architecture, in color, in music, in another artist work. The list seems to go on and on. I pay attention to that shift of energy in my body.
Sometimes it’s a challenge to stop and notice the details. To look at the unexpected vantage points. To challenge myself to pay attention. But when I do, it’s worth it.
Often when I go into my studio to begin making art, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I used to put off going into the studio as I didn’t feel particularly confident about what I wanted to do, and thought I had to know what the finished piece would look like before I even started.
Then I realized:
- Action is magic, power and grace
- That it’s important to celebrate little successes
- To explore is part of the process
- Doing it daily builds momentum
Now I go to the studio with only an interest in spontaneity.
I may have a starting point which is often in the form of a question, “what if?” Because I want my process to be beyond what I already know, I want to tap into my imagination. I want to feel the energy in my body shift. That is when I know what I’m doing is right for me.
I start my practice with a ritual. It’s a simple one. Nothing formal. I just close my eyes and set an intention for the day’s studio time.
Don’t get me wrong. There are still times when I start working and I can’t tap into that energy. Those are the days that I just futz around with something. I paint the edges of my boards. I prepare a surface with a few coats. I play with something on a sample board I’ve been meaning to try. Or I search for images that might spark that emotion.
But part of the care and feeding of your creative mind is finding how inspiration shows up for you. Pay attention to what sparks your creativity and make it a regular habit to explore more.
Tell me, what are your sources of inspiration and how do you work them into your creative mind?
Be well….be creative,
The most important message for me here is Pay Attention. Or PAY ATTENTION. I find inspiration on my daily walks and in the books I devour and all the Facebook Pinterest images from other artists and from the play time with my grandchildren. Your message to pay attention to that stirring and hold it in my hand and let it resonate is a piece I need to put into practice. Thank you.
Paying attention I’ve found to be the most important thing for me….and when I feel lost in all this craziness of this world we live in…..I try to center myself by paying attention. Just this morning I had a moment when paying attention was key to me receiving an important subtle message:)
THIS … is beautiful. Thank you for sharing
Thank you my friend.
I constantly try to practice the concept of “Do What Scares You”. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s going to a location to shoot images or taking a trip to off shore place that isn’t completely comfortable and had a completely culture and standards of life.
I must always remember it not the amount of time spent but the quality and focus of the time spent.
My challenges are self imposed and only hindered by my lack of gumption to simply get out there and do it. I never have been one to worry about what others say or what is socially expected. My work speaks for me no matter what form it takes.
Hopefully some day people will say they were glad to have know me. What more can one ask?
Feel the fear, and do it anyways, right? I love it. Usually when things scare me, I try to lean into them and figure out what is the real fear. Often it’s just an illusion of a past story I’ve told myself. And it’s a matter as you said to ‘simply get out there and do it’. I think people are already say8ing that they are glad to know you, for one I am. Your work is beautiful!
Inspiration is elusive for me – a shy creature who hides when I go looking for her, or maybe a trickster who likes me to play hide-and-seek with her. I have found for myself that Inspiration will find me if I just show up and start doing the work: take my camera on a hike (and maybe it’s just extra weight that gets carried but not used, or maybe Inspiration finds me and we play); go into my studio, turn on some music, light a candle or incense, grab a pen and open my journal (and maybe it’s just ranting that gets written, or maybe Inspiration joins me and we play); go into my studio and clean up the tables or pull a book from the shelf or open my art journal and glue something down (and maybe not much happens, or maybe Inspiration comes to sit next to me and we play.) If I wait for inspiration before I start to work, I’ll be waiting for a very long time. If I just show up, even when it feels like there is no point and that there’s a bunch of “more important” things for me to do, I just might be visited by Inspiration. I just have to show up.
Absolutely. Show up and start working, let it come. If we all waited for the inspiration first, I’m not sure much would get done. One of my other mantra’s is to start before I’m ready. Or as Nike insists, ‘Just Do It’. Inspiration can certainly be elusive, it’s tricky that way. But showing up is 80% of the battle, right?
People think that progress in other fields also happens by “aha moments”. Scientists sometimes have them, but more often than not, it is just showing up and playing in the lab, there is no aha moment. Why put that pressure on oneself? While it may be true that someone else will discover the truth or solution to a problem someday anyway, even if it isn’t the individual in question, someone still has to do the scientific work too. Play is the process to the aha moment.
I guess like most things in life…..you gotta show up. Nothing will happen if you don’t show up!
Great article and message, Clare! For me, this past year trying to heal from a near death illness and then my husband’s memory diagnoses, by the end of 2019 I felt drained and all my creative sucked out of me. The well was dry. I was angry, grieving, just not happy. I was allowing all this emotion to over run my life. I was going down to the studio to just sit and look and feeling uninspired. What to do?
Well, I sat and thought about the situation. I know it’s not going to improve, but I can improve on how I react. Once I made that decision, my excitement in creating again is coming back. My friend and I started making products for some shows this year – so that should keep me on task! And with that has come the spark of ideas for some art pieces.
So your message today is kind of spark to keep the momentum going. Thank you!
Oh I love this Bea. I’m so happy that I could be part of the spark to keep you going. It’s true, we always have power over how we react…..sometimes it’s just one day at a time:) Hoping that 2020 treats you with kindness.